A blog on desert arabian horses, past, present and future
I was always curious about the background of the Bahraini stallion Krushan Speckled (aka Krushan Al Marshoosh, also called Krushan Al Aswad, and his beautiful dam Krush Al Araibi (alt spelling Araiby). There is a full article about him and his dam, as well as awesome pictures of both, in the “Pearls of Great Price” … Read more
From her Journals and Correspondence (J&C, edited by Archer and Flemning), comes an account of the travels of Lady Anne and Wilfrid Blunt among the Bani Lam of Lower Mesopotamia and Khuzestan. It took place during their 1879 journey through al-Amarah in Lower Mesopotamia through Khuzestan/Arabistan by way of Dezful and Shustar all the way … Read more
The other day Moira Walker pointed me to the book “A trip to Baghdad: With an Appendix on the Arab Horse” written in 1908 by an Indian senior official, Nawab Hamid Yar Jung. He traveled with his father, Colonel Nawab Afsur-ul-Mulk, and another man, Mahboob Ali Beg, to Baghdad in March 1907, and its vicinity, … Read more
Arabic language Facebook pages concerned with historical photographs of the Arab world, its populations, and its culture occasionally turn up photos of Bedouin Arabian horses. Below is one example: The text under the photo is in Ottoman Turkish, a language I don’t read, but close enough to Arabic for me to make up that the … Read more
Starting in the 1950s, so-called “Iraqi Arabians” swept across the Middle East race tracks of Lebanon, and, to a lesser extent, of Egypt and the Sudan. Until then, the overwhelming majority of the racehorses involved in the racing industry of these countries were asil desert-breds from the Northern and Central Arabian deserts. The Iraqi Arabians were … Read more
The archives of Gertrude Bell, sometimes referred to as the “Uncrowned Queen of Iraq” ( how I hate that title!), are at Newcastle University in the UK. If you do not know who Gertrude Bell is, or simply wish to know more about her, then click here. The archives include this first photo of a Shammar … Read more
I recently shared with you my plan to propose the mare *Lebnaniah for inclusion in the Roster of Al-Khamsa horses as of 2010. The process is very thorough, usually involving several individuals putting their research skills together. It typically takes several years to complete. As part of this process, I will be sending the Al Khamsa … Read more
I have written a lot about the Kuhaylan Krush strain recently, more particularly on the branch of that strain that has been associated with the Dawish leaders of the Mutayr tribe. The mares Dafina (to the UK in 1926) and probably El Kahila (to Egypt in 1927) are both representatives of this branch, and so are the three … Read more
. These two horses are from the Tabib blood line They are completely diferent from the French horses,with Thouroughbred blood, that we posted and from today French race horses. The Iraqis are saying roughly that if Tabib (al Souri) was really a Thouroughbred or an Anglo Arab his sons and grand -sons should have been faster than ordinary … Read more
I am preparing an entry about the stud of the Iraqi family of al-Nujaifi near Mosul. This family has been breeding Arabian horses for the past 100 years and even sold some mares to the Turkish horsebuying commission in the 1930s. This short report from the WAHO website showcases the young stallion Dahman Bagdad from … Read more